A cold, evening walk in rural Manitoba became a rescue mission for an RCMP officer and his canine partner.

Const. Taylor Burns and his service dog Hix were getting some after-work exercise Monday night, walking a dark, dirt road alongside a snowy field in the Woodlands area, when Hix caught a scent and darted off.

"We typically come across deer and other little critters out there," said Burns, who takes Hix for a two-kilometre walk every night. "He'll run but he's very obedient and will come as soon as I call."

Before Burns needed to command Hix to return, the dog stopped and stood staring at something just off the road.

"It looked like a ball of ice that had fallen off a truck," Burns said. "I told him to leave it but he kept standing over it."

So Burns went over and directed the beam of his headlamp to the ice ball, and saw the glint from a pair of eyes. Then he heard a faint but telltale meow.

Const. Taylor Burns took the kittens into the office on Tuesday, where they were given a lot of attention by his colleagues. (RCMP)

Burns bent over to pick up the near-frozen kitten when he noticed another. All he could carry was one, so he leashed Hix and went back home, wrapped up the cold orange-and-white tabby, then went back for the other one.

Burns wrapped that one up in his arms as well, then kept looking around. He ended up finding two more, but it was too late for them.

Then he saw a blanket and a bowl of cat food.

Burns assumes someone abandoned the cats there. But if they hoped the animals would be found by someone, the location was a bad choice, he said.

"There's nothing around there. The closest thing is a cemetery," he said, adding "it was really blowing hard and snowing" that night.

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